Category Archives: Victoria

Victorian government faces backlash from small businesses over right to work-from-home laws

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Small employers won’t be exempt from proposed legislation designed to allow offsite working two days a week

Business groups have criticised a decision to rule out exemptions for small businesses in the Victorian government’s plan to legislate the right to work from home two days a week, saying some companies could move interstate or overseas.

Cabinet met on Monday to greenlight the work from home plan – a key pillar of Labor’s re-election campaign – with further announcements expected during the parliamentary sitting week.

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Last of the summer rain puts southern states on flood watch and Sydney on alert for bull sharks

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SA premier Peter Malinauskas warns residents to prepare for heavy falls and possible flash floods

Late summer rain is causing havoc across Australia, with South Australia on flood watch, Victoria cleaning up after a downpour, and Sydney issuing a shark warning after heavy falls.

Almost all of South Australia, much of western Victoria and parts of western NSW were on flood watch as a slow-moving pressure system from central Australia moved east. Queensland had also seen severe rainfall.

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Polls, preferences, potential defections: can Victoria’s Liberal party ward off the rising threat of One Nation?

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Opposition leader Jess Wilson is under pressure to reveal her position on a deal with Pauline Hanson’s party as the state election approaches

While internal divisions have long been the Victorian Liberal party’s main obstacle to winning government, a new threat is emerging on its right flank: One Nation.

Just four years ago, One Nation received just 8,077 lower house first-preference votes out of more than 3.6m cast in Victoria – equivalent to 0.22% of the total – and won a single seat in the upper house.

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Where will Victoria’s new homes be built? Competing Liberal and Labor visions are as much about politics as planning

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Jess Wilson’s housing plan offers little that is truly new – but Jacinta Allan claims it draws a line through Melbourne and locks millennials out

A genuine policy contest has finally broken out over housing in Victoria – but it is as much about politics as it is about planning.

The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, on Wednesday announced a plan to expand Melbourne’s capital city zone – effectively expanding the CBD to take in Collingwood, Fitzroy, Fishermans Bend, North Melbourne, Parkville and parts of Southbank not already included. This will mean height limits can be lifted, density increased and development encouraged to “restore vibrancy” to the city.

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Role of far-right manosphere in homophobic attacks on men to be investigated in Victoria

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Exclusive: Greens move to call parliamentary inquiry after series of ‘disturbing’ attacks targeting gay and bisexual men lured via dating apps

The role of “far-right manosphere influencers” in fuelling homophobic attacks where victims were lured through fake dating app profiles before being assaulted is set to be investigated by a Victorian parliamentary inquiry.

Aiv Puglielli, the Greens’ equality spokesperson, will on Wednesday move a motion calling on the upper house’s legal and social issues committee to investigate the scale of such crimes, as well as the state’s current response and support available to victims.

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Hundreds potentially affected by Victoria police weapons searches that breached law

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Exclusive: wide-ranging police powers used to conduct non-compliant searches that resulted in 33 people being charged or fined

Victoria police will inform the state’s anti-corruption watchdog that it did not comply with the law when it used wide-ranging powers to search people for weapons on 23 separate occasions dating back eight years.

The non-compliant searches resulted in 33 people being charged or fined, all of whom will be contacted by police and informed of the problem.

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Victoria could become first Australian state to ban unnecessary surgery on intersex children

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Exclusive: Legislation would prohibit deferrable, irreversible procedures until child can give informed consent, bringing state in line with ACT

Victoria will become the first Australian state to ban unnecessary surgeries on intersex children, with legislation to be introduced to parliament to ensure procedures are deferred until patients are old enough to consent to them.

The health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, will on Tuesday introduce the health safeguards for people born with variations in sex characteristics bill, which if passed would prohibit deferrable, irreversible procedures and treatments on intersex infants and children until they can provide informed consent.

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Victorian man jailed after homemade gun misfires and kills his pregnant partner

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Kiara Ferguson died after Adam Winmar’s daughter, four, found loaded weapon in family’s couch in 2023

Six months’ pregnant with two children at home, a young regional Victorian woman was understandably upset when her four-year-old found a gun inside their couch.

Kiara Ferguson, 27, took the homemade firearm from the girl and marched to the back of the family home, where her partner of 10 years was in the toilet.

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State Library of Victoria faces job cuts as staff accuse management of pursuing ‘digital vanity projects’

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Under the plan, 39 jobs would be lost and the public-facing workforce of reference librarians would be cut from 25 staff to 10

State Library of Victoria staff have accused management of undermining the 171-year-old institution’s core purposes in favour of flashy tourist-oriented “digital vanity projects” in a proposed restructure.

Under the plan, 39 jobs would be lost and the public-facing workforce of reference librarians would be cut from 25 staff to 10, while many publicly accessible computers would be removed.

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Owner of scandal-plagued Panthera Finance tells court it was not technically operating illegally in Victoria

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Francom claims that because Panthera had ‘acquired’ the debts, it was not technically engaged in collecting debt owed to a third party

One of Australia’s largest debt collection firms has claimed that scandal-plagued Panthera Finance was not technically banned from operating in Victoria after it was blacklisted by the state’s consumer watchdog.

Consumer Affairs Victoria launched legal action against Panthera Finance last year, alleging it operated in the state illegally after a federal court ruling in 2020, and despite warnings that doing so could amount to a criminal offence.

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Brad Battin faces spill after group of Victorian Liberal MPs say they have lost confidence in his leadership

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Sources say shadow treasurer Jess Wilson has received enough support to test leadership of the party a year out from state poll

A group of Victorian Liberal MPs has told the party leader, Brad Battin, they no longer have confidence in his leadership, paving the way for a vote on whether to replace him.

The intervention on Monday afternoon – delivered almost one year before the state goes to the polls – could trigger a ballot on his position as early as Tuesday morning.

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Police detonated a ‘stinger’ grenade at a Melbourne protest. Now two activists may sue over their injuries

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Grenades filled with rubber pellets and other so-called ‘less lethal’ munitions have been increasingly deployed, despite being linked to serious injuries and even deaths

Scout* barely realised that something round and hard, with smoke coming from it, had landed in front of them before it exploded.

Pain suddenly shot through their leg and arm. Scout fell to their knees before someone nearby helped them rush out of the area.

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Severe thunderstorm risk for northern and eastern Australia including Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra

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BoM forecasts possible storms from tropical north and WA to central and eastern parts, with potential for strong winds and heavy rainfall

Much of northern and eastern Australia faces a risk of severe thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon and evening, with millions of people potentially in the firing line.

“It’s another severe thunderstorm outbreak for eastern parts of the country. It could be an active one,” said Angus Hines, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology on Saturday.

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Bus chaperone kept working at school during months-long police investigation into alleged child sexual abuse

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Exclusive: Victorian education department apologises to mother who alleged her nonverbal child was sexually assaulted by the man. He denied the allegations and no charges were laid

A school bus chaperone who allegedly sexually assaulted a nonverbal child continued working with students for months during the subsequent Victorian police investigation, prompting an apology to the girl’s mother from the state’s education department.

The allegation was denied by the chaperone and did not lead to charges. But Victoria’s education department apologised to the mother last year for failing to implement risk mitigation strategies during the police investigation.

In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International

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Will Victoria’s new youth crime laws be tough on crime or just a coward punch?

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Jacinta Allan’s Labor government takes a leaf out of the playbook of conservative oppositions: focus on crime and hope voters see them as knights in shining armour

To put it in language those in the Victorian government who are enamoured of tabloid newspapers and talkback radio will understand: are these new laws tough on crime, or merely a coward punch?

A decision by the Victorian government to introduce adult crime, adult time laws has been widely condemned as an easy way out, getting in first with a cheap shot rather than having to duke it out on youth crime with a rabble of a Coalition at next year’s state election. It may work politically, but will it work as policy?

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Neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell abused by protesters after getting bail over alleged Camp Sovereignty attack

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Sewell, 32, must not be in Melbourne’s CBD or talk to alleged camp attack co-accused as part of bail conditions

A neo-Nazi who allegedly led a violent group attack on a First Nations protest camp in Melbourne has been greeted by protesters shouting “Nazi scum, off our streets” after being released on bail.

Thomas Sewell, 32, hired a top barrister to successfully argue in the supreme court that he should be released, after failing in a previous application for bail two months ago.

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Traditional owners file native title claim over Melbourne and surrounding areas

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Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung elder says the claim would allow First Nations people to work with government to ‘look after that country’

Traditional owners have filed a native title claim over Melbourne and surrounding regions.

The claim by the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people covers thousands of square kilometres, from the mouth of the Werribee River north to its headwater in the Great Dividing Range, east to Mount Baw Baw, south through Bunyip and west to Mordialloc Creek.

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Victoria police re-enact single gunshot heard hour after Dezi Freeman fled into Porepunkah bushland

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‘Firearms testing’ triggered by reports of gunshot at about 11.45am on day Freeman is alleged to have killed two police officers serving warrant

A reported single gunshot has sparked a fresh line of inquiry in the long-running manhunt for alleged police killer Desmond “Dezi” Freeman.

Victoria police conducted “firearms testing” near Barrett Lane and Rayner Track in Porepunkah, about 210km north-east of Melbourne, on Wednesday as part of their search.

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Severe storms forecast for parts of NSW as Victoria and Queensland face wet weather

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BoM says destructive winds and ‘very dangerous thunderstorms’ are most likely across the Hunter, mid-north NSW coast and northern tablelands

Severe storms with the potential for destructive winds and large hail are expected to move across New South Wales on Saturday.

Storms were also expected in parts of Queensland and Victoria.

Sydney 32C with showers and then storms developing.

Melbourne 13C with rain increasing.

Brisbane 31C with a late shower or two.

Perth 28C and sunny.

Adelaide 18C and cloudy.

Hobart 15C and partly cloudy.

Canberra 26C with a shower or two and then becoming windy.

Darwin 34C and partly cloudy.

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Sam Groth’s ambition to be premier meant articles on relationship with wife ‘not idle gossip’, News Corp claims

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Court told new privacy laws shouldn’t apply to Herald Sun stories alleging Victorian MP’s wife, Brittany, was underage at start of relationship

News Corp stories alleging Sam Groth began dating his wife, Brittany, while she was underage were far from “idle gossip” given the claims were being “weaponised” by rivals of the Victorian Liberal MP, who aspires to become premier, the publisher has told a court.

The Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), reporter Stephen Drill and Herald Sun editor Sam Weir are being sued in the federal court over a series of articles published in July. Groth is suing for defamation while his wife has launched the first test case of new laws for serious invasions of privacy.

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